Members of the Petway Elementary School choir sing during the anti-bullying rally. / Staff photo/Charles J. Olson

Petway Elementary School students parade around the Vineland school during an anti-bullying rally on Friday. / Staff photo/Charles J. Olson

Yaneliz Colon, 10, a student at Petway Elementary School in Vineland, holds up a sign and demonstrates during the anti-bullying rally. / Staff photo/Charles J. Olson

More

ADVERTISEMENT

VINELAND — Last school year, Petway Elementary School student Catie Guiliani read a book detailing some of the things kids could do to stop bullying.

And this year, as a fifth-grader, she applied what she learned to help organize her school’s “Stomp Out Bullying Rally” that brought all the school students together in the playground for a common cause.

“Being here and seeing it all come together is super amazing,” she said.

The goal of the event, she said, was “to prevent bullying and promote respect.’’

This first “Stomp Out Bullying Rally” helped wrap up Petway’s observance of the Week of Respect, said Karen Malatesta, the school’s assistant principal.

Kindergartners decorated anti-bully crowns that they wore to the rally. Older students wrote anti-bully messages on paper plates, construction paper and long roles of poster paper that they waved during the gathering.

“Bully free starts with me,” fifth-grader Ronald Sauerbrey wrote on his poster.

“Bullies are bad and they become criminals,” he said, adding people “get sad when they are bullied.”

Edward Polishchuk, a fifth-grader, offered some anti-bully tips on his poster.

“Stand up for yourself, together forever, the opposite of a bully, peace,” the poster read.

A quartet of kindergarteners took the microphone and pledged “I’m a buddy, not a bully.”

The Petway Patriot Pride Singers sang and the school’s cheerleading squad, who trained during their recess, lead the student body in anti-bulling cheers that continued as the students paraded around their school.

You will automatically receive the TheDailyJournal.com Top 5 daily email newsletter. If you don't want to receive this newsletter, you can change your newsletter selections in your account preferences.